A Salford food project is raising funds to provide daily meals for NHS workers throughout the Greater Manchester area.

The Launch Project which is also a mobile pantry is selling hand made mugs designed with the NHS rainbow badge at £3.50 to raise money to provide meals throughout the pandemic period.

Natalie Lek, 40, founder and CEO of The Launch Project, said: “The proceeds from the sale of the mugs will go into providing meals for the NHS workers. It will be two meals per sale of each mug.

“We are working very hard to make sure that many mugs as possible are sold so that we can keep providing the food for the NHS. We don’t just want it to be a short term initiative. We want it to keep going for as long as the pandemic lasts.

“So it is very important that we keep the sales of the mug going so that the food can continue to made and delivered.”

The community organisationwill also be providing free food packs to people over the age of 60 that are at high risk of developing the COVID-19 virus, those with underlining critical health issues like heart problems, and anything of a severe nature.

Also, for people who don’t fall into such category but struggling to manage, are welcome to join the pantry service where free food is provided when they pay a small membership fee which covers the delivery for as long as necessary.

Natalie  said the organisation wanted something different from the usual go-fund-me style of raising money

She said: “The thing with having a go-fund-me account is that people donate but they don’t see anything in the end, they don’t have a thank you, they don’t have a long term kind of evidence to say they contributed this amount of money to this initiative and this is what they got in the end.

“I think go-fund-me is great, I think its an absolutely fantastic platform but when we are going to donations, everyone wants to have a thank you. you know, you like to see something that shows your donation went well.

“Especially in the current pandemic situation, when we come out on the other side, we want to have something positive to look back on. I really feel that the sale of these mugs will be such a positive memory to have at the end of the pandemic.”

The mugs are made by a lady who works from home in Middleton who is on board to be a part of the project.

A lot of volunteers have also come forward since the pandemic started because they want to be involved and support their community.

“I really feel that the sale of these mugs will be such a positive memory to have at the end of the pandemic.”

Natalie added: ” The initiative is being very well received, everyone is excited about getting the mugs, the first batch has been made and will be dispatched and we are very excited about that.

“The biggest challenge will be to continually promote the initiative, obviously when it first started everybody got really excited. It’s maintaining that excitement, maintaining that interaction with the community for a long period of time, the pandemic might continue for months we are not quite sure, the government is not that sure as well, so we have to maintain that effort for the time that we are in the pandemic.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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